Computing systems and networks, including communications networks, and data storage networks, are often relied on by individuals, teams, and organizations for a variety of applications. For example, computing system or a communication network may be relied on by military personnel while carrying on field operations. In addition, such networks and computing systems may be relied on in a variety of settings. For example, a communication network may be needed by military personal in the middle of a desert.
Existing computing systems and networks, however, may not have the portability and flexibility needed for serving such a variety of applications in a variety of settings. For example, existing computing systems and networks may include several components such as network switches and multiple computers with processing, data storage, and communication capabilities. Transporting such equipment for various types of field operations may be time consuming, very costly and impractical, due to size, weight, and power constraints. In addition, processing and storage capabilities of such systems may be limited due to portability requirements.
Moreover, existing storage networks may rely on a host bus adapter (or a hardware multiplexer) to interface a CPU with multiple solid state drives in order to expand storage capabilities. However, the hardware multiplexer requires additional power resources and also takes up physical space, both of which may be limited in a portable mobile deployment.